


Taking Advantage

by JuxtaposeFantasy



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Dubious Consent, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-06
Updated: 2013-06-06
Packaged: 2017-12-14 03:08:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/832006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JuxtaposeFantasy/pseuds/JuxtaposeFantasy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternate outcome of Will's visit to Budge's shop. What if Budge decided to use Will to get back at Hannibal? What if Hannibal used Will's terrible experience at Budge's hands to his advantage?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taking Advantage

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for "Fromage".

It was Dr. Lecter who directed Will to Tobias Budge's string shop. It had been a simple suggestion to look into the music instructor, which Will had taken seriously and gratefully. Lecter would not have made the suggestion lightly, which meant Budge was a person of strong interest.

Will brought along two officers when he visited the _Chardophone String Shop_. He didn't know their names and didn't care to know them. They were there for the intimidation factor and to handle things if things got...complicated.

Things weren't, of course, supposed to become complicated. But as did most things in Will's life, the shit hit the fan in the strangest of ways.

"Didn't you hear that?" Will inwardly cringed when Budge gave him a blank look. The two of them plus the nameless officers were in Budge's shop/home, and the questioning had barely begun, but Will had heard something concerning.

"Hear what?" Budge asked, polite, helpful. He didn't look like a killer but Will was learning not to trust his gut or his senses these days.

He was very much aware that he was teetering on the brink of something awful lately. Hallucinations, sleepwalking, losing time...all were Very Bad Things. Things that suggested problems in his brain. Will nonetheless couldn't let this go. He _had_ heard something, damnit. 

Gritting his teeth, he muttered, "I'll be right back."

He stepped outside Budge's home, just to look. But then...nothing.

Time slipped away from him.

As soon as he opened his eyes he knew he was in trouble. Dozens of strands of cat gut, resembling translucent spaghetti, wound around his wrists, binding them together. They were strung above his head to something over the edge of the chaise upon which he was lying. He couldn't lift himself up to see where the gut was tied because his ankles were bound too, one to each leg of the chaise. It left him sprawled awkwardly over the soft cushions. He knew they were soft because he was completely naked atop them.

He'd lost time. That was bad enough. Who knew how many hours had passed since he'd stepped out of Budge's house, or worse, what he'd done in that time. Although...it didn't appear that he'd done anything useful or effective considering his current predicament. This wasn't the work of the police, restraining him because he'd hurt someone. This was the work of Budge. 

Will craned his neck around. He was in a small room, maybe a guest bedroom judging by the full-sized bed against one wall and the lack of personal effects anywhere in view. A rectangular window above the dresser leaked rose-gold light. Evening hadn't completely fallen, meaning he'd lost probably two or three hours. That was good and bad. Good because not much could have happened in that time, bad because no one might be looking for him yet. Unless...

He strained to listen. The house seemed utterly still. Where were the officers who'd accompanied him here? Surely Budge hadn't been able to incapacitate them on his own? Unless he'd caught them by surprise, much as he must have done to Will.

Then again he could be flattering himself. He would be the first to admit he hadn't been the most all-together person lately. The Chesapeake Ripper could be mowing his lawn every week and Will would be none the wiser. Too many things were distracting him these days, the majority of them happening within his own head. All it would take was a single spaced-out moment for Budge to take him down.

But why not kill him? Will struggled to make sense of that as he strained against the cat gut bindings. Clearly Budge intended to torture him or carve him up as he had the cellist. What would he attempt to make of Will? A viola? A harpsichord? Will shivered, though it could have been caused by the brush of air over his bare skin created when the room's single door opened.

Tobias Budge stepped inside. He wasn't wearing gloves and he wasn't carrying anything in his hands. He wore a vest over a shirt with the sleeves rolled up, but other than that he looked like a man about to have a conversation, not slice someone up and turn them into a human instrument. Will kept still, acutely aware of how vulnerable he was at the moment. He had never been comfortable with his body, much less shared it with others. When Budge's eyes moved dispassionately over him, Will felt himself blush.

"I saw you there," Budge said. "That night at Dr. Lecter's."

Will's brow furrowed as he struggled to make a connection. "I don't know what you're talking about. Which night?" He yanked against his bindings. "Budge, I am a federal agent. Let me go."

"We were having dinner. You interrupted us."

There was something in Budge's voice--peevishness? Will pulled up the memory. It was the night he had unwisely kissed Alana. Dr. Lecter had shared dessert with Will, dessert meant for a missing dinner guest.

"I didn't know that was you," Will said carefully, uncertain where this was heading. "He said his guest had already left."

Budge's smooth face hardened over like granite. "He said he didn't want to be my friend. Is it because _you're_ his friend?"

The childish jealousy in Budge's voice warned Will that the situation could turn ugly if he misspoke.

"We're colleagues."

"You came to his house unannounced. You let yourself in without asking." Budge stepped forward, standing so close to the chaise that Will had trouble seeing him from his position. "Colleagues don't do that. Only friends do."

"I'm sure Dr. Lecter would be interested in becoming your friend," Will said evenly. He tried to subtly flex against the cat gut, hoping to stretch the strings. It was hopeless. Cat gut was valued because of its strength in addition to its tone. A wild thought occurred to Will: was Budge going to play him while he was stretched over the chaise like this?

"I can put in a good word for you."

Budge's smile was a sliver of humorlessness. "No thank you. I'm not desperate. Besides," he said as he reached into the pocket of his trousers. Will belatedly noticed the bulge there. It proved to be several lengths of what looked like piano wire, the bundle tied at one end, the strands left loose at the other end, each capped by what looked like tiny metal peas. Will's stomach clenched as Budge let the lengths dangle at his side, the bound end clutched in his trembling fist. "I don't need a friend who stabs me in the back. I know he sent you here."

"It was inevitable that the police would come knocking," Will said hurriedly as Budge drew back his arm. "We're investigating all of the music shops--don't--Budge, wait!"

The wires hissed as they sliced through the air. When they snapped across Will's bare buttocks he thought for an instant that he'd been slapped with strands of ice. Then the ice melted and turned into threads of acid. He gasped at the fiery pain, his body arching off the chaise, straining against the cat gut.

The piano wire whip fell again, smacking across his lower back. The pain was pure and instant, so bright in Will's mind that he could assign a color to it: white, blinding white. Again the hiss of wire, agony spidering across his shoulders, the beads licking under his armpit and biting tender skin like the strike of a cobra. 

He heard himself gasping, too choked up with pain to release the groans that were building in his chest. He thrashed against the cat gut, feeling his wrists grow wet, as Budge continued to whip him up and down the length of his body, striking as low as his calves and as high as the base of his neck. Pain bloomed dull and ugly in his groin as he ground his withered cock against the cushion in a futile, mindless attempt to melt into them, through them, and escape from this torture. 

The first sob managed to climb up Will's throat and burst from his lips. Peculiarly, as soon as the sound met the air, Budge stopped.

He stood, panting, above Will as Will drove his damp face against the cushion and rode the shudders of clenching muscle that crashed over his body in waves. His entire body felt alive in the worst way, like it was nothing but a mass of raw, screaming nerves.

"I wanted his attention," he heard Budge say, winded and satisfied. The wire whip dropped to the hardwood floor with a metallic twang. "Now, I want Hannibal's regret." A jangle. A rustle of cloth. The familiar rasp of a zipper. "Won't he be sorry when he finds his friend defiled and destroyed by the man he so foolishly rejected."

It never occurred to Will in his pain-fogged state that something worse was coming. It wasn't until Budge's hair roughened thighs pressed against the tangle of whip welts on the back of his legs that Will realized what he was soon in for. He gritted his teeth and clenched his eyes shut when the other man slicked him with something -- a tiny mercy, but most likely for Budge's benefit -- before roughly fingering him between his ass cheeks.

Will had taken plenty of courses, knew all about the mindset of rapists and what this was and what it wasn't. He still had trouble distancing himself as Budge forced his cock slowly up into his body until the man's hips were flush against the throbbing, stinging skin of his ass. It was an impossible fullness, impossible to ignore, impossible to reject. Budge was all over him and in him and Will bit through his bottom lip until he tasted blood when Budge began to move, slowly filling him, withdrawing, and then filling him again.

The movement was nearly clinical, which made it even more terrible. The slow, deliberate invasion of his body meant Will felt every dragging second of it. Budge's breath gusted evenly against Will's hair. The chaise groaned every few minutes when Budge changed his angle, but otherwise it was maddeningly silent in the room as Will was fucked.

Minutes later, Budge finally spoke.

"When he finds you," he said, his voice shiveringly close to Will's left ear, "he's going to see the whipping, of course, and know instantly that it was I who marked you. But the real treat will come later, when he learns--or maybe I'll be fortunate and he'll see it for himself--that I've been inside you, that I filled his friend with the essence of me." A shift, and Budge groaned softly beneath his breath. He lost his steady, mechanical rhythm and drove into Will with a snap of the hips. "You'll be my ultimate 'fuck you'."

Twenty minutes later, Budge did something different. He slid one hand along the outer curve of Will's thigh, fingering the swollen welts on his skin just as Budge would finger the chords on the neck of a cello. He followed one particularly long welt beneath Will's hip and in doing so his fingertips grazed something that shocked even Will.

"You're enjoying this."

Budge sounded surprised. Thoughtful.

"F-Fuck you," Will spat out. He was horrified. How could this have happened?

 _It's a physiological response,_ he told himself, but as valid as the excuse was, his mind failed to accept it.

"Would it be worse if he found evidence that you had enjoyed this?" Budge wondered aloud. His hips plunged forward more forcefully, burying his prick deeper into Will, as if the thought excited him. "A betrayal for a betrayal? He sicced you on me, hoping you'd arrest me, but I was able to betray your friendship with him?"

"You're sick," Will ground out. He yanked half-heartedly against the cat gut on his wrists, which were a wet, bloody mess. To his surprise, the loop on his right hand slid up to his knuckles. One hand free...could he manage the other before Budge killed him?

He seized the distraction and held it as a shield over his mind as Budge made it his mission to bring Will to orgasm. Budge found his prostate and focused his thrusts to apply constant pressure to it. Will bit his tongue to hold back the moans he couldn't bear to let loose. His shoulder muscles clenched, his head grew heavy. He'd never had sex with a man, never been penetrated anally. The sensation of pressure against his prostate was intensely powerful and disturbed him mentally even as it aroused him physically.

He felt his body heating with impending orgasm. Budge shoved his hand beneath Will's hips and found his cock, thick and full. He squeezed it almost gently as he rolled his own hips, first in a circle, then from side to side, trying to find what Will like. Each brush of Budge's cock inside him made Will shudder. His hips shoved back, out of his control, seeking a deeper penetration.

"Mr. Graham, you're nearly there," Budge said to him, his voice thick with strain now. "Hannibal will be in for quite a surprise when he finds your body and the gift I'll be leaving inside it."

His smugness grated on Will's nerves, gave him the willpower to hold back even though his balls were burning with the need to release. Above him, Budge used him steadily, silently, and when he came it was a surprise to both of them. The ozone stink of his release nearly made Will gag. He did gag when Budge spent a few minutes afterwards sliding himself in and out of the viscous wetness that coated Will, as if luxuriating in the feel of conquest.

As Budge was pumping and groaning softly in post-coital bliss against the back of Will's neck, Will pulled his right hand free and slowly moved it to his bound left wrist, which he managed to force over his bloodied left hand. Budge was still leisurely fucking him when Will dropped his left hand to the floor and found the piano wire whip.

To kill a man in the heat of a chase was one thing. Killing one as he lay all but insensate took a coldness of soul. Fortunately, Will's soul was iced over. He clenched his buttocks hard, which pulled a startled yelp out of Budge and made him lift his head off of Will's shoulders. With a forceful twist, Will spun around beneath the other man, wrapped the wires around Budge's throat, and pulled them taut.

Will had rarely met Budge's gaze while he was alive, he barely made eye contact with him now as he garroted the other man to death. Though Budge was strong and desperate, scratching both himself and Will in his flailing, Will was relentless. It was like Looking and stepping into the mind of a serial killer, except he was still Will and all that he did now was by his choice. He didn't release pressure on the wires until ten minutes later, long after Budge had stopped struggling against him and his tongue lolled sickly from the corner of his mouth. Even then, Will added a final yank, just in case. And to say, _fuck you._

Budge's body slid to the floor with a heavy thud of finality. Will sat up and freed himself without looking at the corpse. The welts on his back stung, but he could tell Budge hadn't drawn blood. No scars, then. Just a few scratches on his chest and forearms where the other man had clawed at him while he was dying.

Adrenaline pushed him out of the room and stumbling through the house until he found his clothes. He winced as he dragged them on over his sensitized flesh. His shirt and pants stuck to his sticky, swollen skin but at least blood wasn't the adhesive.

He couldn't find his gun but when he found his phone he stopped moving and simply stood in the middle of Budge's living room. His hand had begun to tremble. That was the adrenaline, but it was draining out of him quickly. His legs were shaky. He wanted to sit down but he knew once he sat down he wasn't getting up again. Not for hours.

He palmed his mouth, grimaced at the dried blood that flaked against his lips, and considered who to call. Jack was out of the question. He wouldn't keep quiet about any of this. The FBI would think Will even more broken, more unstable... 

Call Alana? No--no, he wouldn't be able to handle the pity in her eyes. Even Beverly wasn't an option. No women and their ability to empathize.

When he brought the phone to his ear it was already ringing.

_"Hello, Will. What can I do for you this evening?"_

Dr. Lecter's calm, solicitous voice washed over him like a balm. Will nearly collapsed where he stood.

"I--" He had to clear his throat. His voice came out sounding rough, as though he'd been screaming for the past hour. He hadn't been, had he? "I'm at Tobias Budge's house. You need to come here. Something's happened."

 _"Of course, Will. I'm leaving the house now."_ A pause. _"Are you...well?"_

Will shut his eyes, clutching the phone so tightly he heard the plastic casing crack. "Just come."

~~~~~

Hannibal wasn't certain what he would find when he arrived at Tobias Budge's house. Sending Will there had been an act of pure impulse. Maybe he had been testing Will, wanting to find out if the younger man was fit enough to survive and earn Hannibal's regard. Maybe he'd wanted Budge to do what he couldn't: kill the man who was the greatest threat to Hannibal's continued freedom.

Whatever his reasoning, he couldn't deny the rush of relief and pleasure that washed over him when Will opened the door as Hannibal approached it. That in itself was something of an epiphany. He enjoyed Will's company but now he realized his attraction for the FBI profiler wasn't a fleeting affection, it was a feeling he wanted to cultivate. Their relationship challenged Hannibal. It piqued his interest. And what was life, but passion and the quest for knowledge and pleasure?

The younger man looked unharmed, if wild about the eyes. It was difficult gauging Will because of those eyes. Their gaze was elusive and always haunted by a primal knowledge that Hannibal yearned to share with him.

Now those green eyes flicked to Hannibal's chest and away as Will stepped back and urgently ushered Hannibal inside. 

"It's Budge," Will said without preamble as he led Hannibal to the stairs and pointed up to a second floor. "He's responsible for the murder of the cellist." A muscle jumped in his stubbled jaw. "He's upstairs."

Hannibal arched a brow. His senses were picking up odd cues from Will. As he placed his foot on the first step he noticed Will remained unmoving.

"You're not coming?"

"You don't need me up there," Will mumbled, staring at the floor. He startled suddenly, and hurriedly crossed his arms, tucking his hands beneath his armpits.

Hannibal took a discreet sniff of the air. The blood in the air surrounding Will was sharp and tangy. Recent. Will's or Tobias'? And there was another scent...curious.

"Very well." Hannibal took the stairs to the second level and found the guest bedroom by smell. As he stood in the doorway he took in the scene, cataloging details and trying and failing to hold back a thrilled smile. He felt himself grow erect but wasn't concerned by it. He sometimes became so while taking a person's life. Apparently it could also happen while admiring his soon-to-be protégé's work.

There was one detail about the scene, however, which bothered him. His smile faded, tightening into a frown of disapproval. His erection wilted. He pivoted on his heel and descended to where Will waited for him.

Green eyes jumped anxiously to his face. "Did you find him?"

"I found Tobias Budge's body, yes. He appears to be dead."

"He attacked me. He may have killed the officers I was with. I had no choice."

Hannibal nodded serenely. "I don't doubt that." He looked around him casually. "You mentioned officers?"

"Two of them," Will said, nodding quickly. "But I don't know where they are. I--I lost track of them."

Will had lost time again. Hannibal was only mildly concerned. Will's wasn't an affliction that would bother him for much longer. For now it was something of a convenience, at least for Hannibal.

"We should inform Jack," Hannibal began.

"No."

Hannibal's heart sped up, though outwardly he betrayed nothing. 

Will licked his lips, eyes darting every which way before rising stubbornly to Hannibal's. "Tobias was the killer. He doesn't need to face justice. He already has."

"The officers..."

"When--if--we find them, we'll call it in. Jack and the others will believe--rightly so--that Budge killed them."

"But they won't know the fate of Tobias." Hannibal wanted to lick Will, taste the delicious desperation that leaked from his pores. "What you are proposing, Will, is that we hide the body. You are asking me to be your accomplice in circumventing the law."

Will lifted his chin. His obstinacy was something Hannibal admired about him. Will, despite the numerous cracks appearing in his psyche, remained fixated on his purpose. It was an admirable strength and deserved to be focused upon a field far more beautiful and...carnal...than law enforcement.

"I'm asking you to help me because you're my friend," Will grated out as he searched Hannibal's face with manic intensity. "You know as well as I do that if the FBI finds out what I did here it will change the way they look at me, which--I know seems difficult to believe-- _can_ actually be worse than how they view me now. There'll be--there'll be an inquiry. Jack and the others will be called in to comment on my mental state, they'll call you--" He stopped midway through his rising mania to take a deep breath. "I'm helping people, Hannibal. I'm _saving_ people. I can't afford to be sidelined because some--some pencil pusher in upper management or some overly sensitive shrink--no offense--thinks I can't handle the job. I'm _handling_ it. I just need to--to get past this."

"The evidence will prove that your actions were in self-defense," Hannibal pointed out. He inclined his head towards Will's wrists, which he continued to keep hidden beneath his arms. "Tobias restrained you. I believe he may have done more to you. The evidence--"

Will blanched. "I don't want anyone...seeing any... _evidence_." He all but spat the word.

He was flaking apart in front of Hannibal's eyes, arousing in Hannibal a most peculiar urge to protect him. But it wasn't just because Will was losing it. Hannibal had seen the scene upstairs, deduced what it all meant. Frankly, it upset him.

He took a moment to analyze his feelings. He had achieved the goal he'd intended. Will had killed someone up close, had tasted the delicious nectar of murder. Will now looked to him to hide the evidence of the crime. Will's fate was irrevocably bound to his. It was natural, Hannibal told himself, that he feel protective of this duckling that he had coaxed to hatch. It was his responsibility, in fact. Will was his creation.

"Find the officers' bodies," he told Will. He didn't pause while Will's eyes widened. "I will dispose of the body upstairs."

"Hannibal..." Will's voice broke. The stern rigidity with which he'd held himself melted. Will swayed on his feet.

Hannibal caught him by one arm, hearing the hiss as Will reacted to a hidden pain. At that moment, Hannibal knew he'd entwined their lives together forever.

"You are right, dear Will," he murmured, gazing down fondly at the other man's bent head. "You are my friend."

A sob. "Thank you."

"There is no need for thanks. You would do the same for me were our positions reversed." Hannibal's lips twitched with amusement. "Be at ease, Will. I will take care of everything. Including you."

~~~~~

Will found the two officers' bodies in the basement of the home. He stared sightlessly at their mangled corpses, too numb to feel sadness at the loss. Better that than feeling everything he knew he _should_.

He remained downstairs with them until, forty-five minutes later, Dr. Lecter, looking unruffled, informed him that Tobias Budge had been taken care of.

"You're sure," Will said weakly.

"I am sure. Come. Let us call Jack and grant these officers' the respect due their remains."

Will climbed up to him, dazed. "What are we going to tell them?"

"As much of the truth as is required. I planted evidence which will suggest that Tobias drugged you and overpowered these officers. When you awoke and freed yourself, he was gone. You were too late, however, to save these officers."

"They'll believe that?" Will laughed hollowly. "It sounds too simple."

"The simpler the deceit, the more likely others are to believe it."

Will tucked that away for some reason. It seemed like something he should remember.

"And they'll never find Tobias?"

Lecter stared deeply into his eyes. "Never."

Will called Jack and the scene was instantly swarmed with investigators. Will hung on to sanity with all of his fingernails as he endured endless questions and gave a false report that made bile sting the back of his throat. It was Lecter who helped him through it, his steady hand at the small of Will's back, not quite applying pressure to the whip marks, as if he knew of their existence. But how could he know? Nonetheless, his steady, unwavering presence at Will's side kept Will parroting his answers long after he wanted to throw up his hands and confess.

Eventually, he was permitted to leave. Lecter guided him by a light grip on one elbow to his car and soon they were speeding away from the scene of the crime. From Will's crime.

"I don't think you should be alone, Will. I am taking you to my place."

Will nodded as he stared blankly out the side window. Lecter could have suggested they drive off a bridge and he would have given his assent. He was placing all of his trust in Lecter now. It was the only way to cope.

As the miles passed, the glass of the side window moved closer. He didn't know when it was he finally collapsed against the frame, but the glass was cool against his cheek and he couldn't bring himself to straighten away from it.

When the car stopped he realized he'd slept the entire way to Lecter's house. Conscious of Lecter watching him, Will gingerly climbed out of the car. He kept his eyes down as he followed the older man into his immaculate home. Will felt dirtier for being there, like he was tainting everything.

"I need--is it possible for me to take a shower?" he forced out through a tight throat.

"Of course. You will feel much better for it."

Lecter showed him to the guest bathroom, which was as large as Will's dining room. Six people could use the room at the same time without anyone feeling imposed upon. Still, Will waited until Hannibal left the room before he shucked his clothes, shivering with disgust when he needed to peel the seat of his pants away from his backside. 

He washed himself far longer than he needed to and it still wasn't enough. Budge was in him now, just as he'd intended. Will couldn't tell Lecter that. The man would be disgusted and it would give Budge the victory he'd wanted. Not to mention Will simply couldn't handle the humiliation of admitting that he'd allowed another man to beat him and penetrate him. Even understanding the psychology of the situation didn't help him to feel better about it.

When he stepped out of the shower he found a pair of sweat pants and a T-shirt waiting for him. He sucked in his breath, realizing it meant Lecter had been in the room with him while he was naked. However the fear he expected didn't materialize. What did it say about their relationship that Will felt this comfortable around him? Or did it only prove that Will knew he had no one else to turn to?

Oddly, both the pants and the shirt appeared to be brand new, as if Lecter had run out and purchased them while Will showered. There was also a tube of antibiotic and a roll of gauze, both of which Will shied away from, reflexively shuddering. He dressed and left the medicine, untouched, on the counter.

He found Lecter downstairs, prepping for dinner. Will had no idea what time it was. He couldn't be hungry after all that had occurred, yet his stomach growled softly as he took a seat on one of the barstools facing the counter. 

The stool, though stylish, was wood and therefore hard. He caught back his hiss of discomfort too late. Lecter, in the act of slicing what looked like fresh pork--though it was oddly dark--lifted his head with a frown.

"I'm alright," Will said to ward off uncomfortable questions. "Just some bruises."

"You didn't use the antibiotics I left for you. Your wrists and ankles are at risk for infection."

Will hid his arms beneath the counter. "They're abraded. They'll heal fine. Please, Hannibal. Leave it."

Lecter resumed slicing but Will could tell his attention was divided between him and the meat.

"Tell me about your encounter with Tobias," Lecter said quietly.

"I'd rather not."

"I risked my career and my freedom for you, Will. Please tell me what happened when you confronted Tobias about the murder."

"It wasn't that simple," Will hedged. He felt humiliated over how easily he'd been taken. Had he put up a fight or had Tobias forced him over the chaise and tied him without a struggle? "I lost time. When I woke up, he was in control."

"How did he have control?"

Will shivered and flinched from the memory. "He tied me with cat gut."

"Your wrists and ankles. Very crude."

"I don't think he cared about finesse," Will snorted, anger flaring and ebbing. "He wanted revenge."

"On me," Lecter said softly and set aside the knife. Its edge was clean even after slicing through all that flesh. "Tobias wanted to be my friend, but I turned him down. He saw you as a rival, and wanted to hurt me by hurting you."

"That's what he said," Will mumbled.

"Tell me, Will: how did he hurt me?"

Will flexed his hands backwards, stretching the healing skin around his wrists, bringing up tiny pearls of blood. He thought he heard Hannibal sniff.

"It doesn't matter. I beat him."

"You have been moving stiffly ever since I came to you." Lecter removed the apron he had tied around his waist and held it in his hands as he contemplated Will. "He tortured you, didn't he?"

Will's shrug was spastic, dismissive. He couldn't meet Lecter's eyes.

"He harmed you in an attempt to strike at me. That means I am responsible for what he did to you. I would like to know what I did to you."

"You didn't do this," Will ground out, feeling sweat beading on his upper lip. 

"Not physically. But my presence in your life brought this upon you. He targeted you in a most specific way." Lecter rounded the counter, pausing beside Will. "He didn't torture the officers you took with you. Their mutilation occurred postmortem. He hurt you because you are mine."

Will raised his head, his eyebrows dancing with confusion. "I'm _yours_?"

"Mine to care for. Mine to assist. Mine to protect. I am doing all of these things for you, Will." Lecter cocked his head, a faint smile touching his thin lips. "Aren't I?"

To argue or deny the point would be an insult after all that Lecter had done for him. Will nodded mutely.

"Don't you think I've earned the right to know what he did to you?"

Lecter was right. Besides, Will was having trouble holding it all in. He'd been keeping the secret of his mental decline from everyone but Lecter. The older man was the only person in Will's life with whom he felt safe confiding even the worst of himself. It was fitting that he know this too.

"He whipped me," he said in a low voice, half-hoping Lecter wouldn't be able to hear him or would misinterpret what he said as something less awful. "With piano wire."

"The wire that you strangled him with."

Was there satisfaction in Lecter's voice? 

"Yes."

"What else did he do to you, Will?"

He opened his mouth, closed it. Tried opening it again but the words were timid, shamed.

Lecter took a step closer. From the corner of his eye, Will watched the other man raise one arm slowly, so as not to startle him. It still startled him when Lecter placed a hand gently against the back of his head and exerted light pressure. Will didn't know what was happening so he didn't know to resist. He went with it, and found himself with his cheek resting against Lecter's soft dress shirt and the warm muscle beneath. The man smelled of expensive cologne and something earthier, muskier, and almost copper-like.

When Lecter dragged his fingers tenderly through Will's hair, something taut within him snapped. He opened his mouth and released a single, choked sob.

"Tell me," Lecter whispered.

"He raped me," Will whispered, dry-eyed but shivering. It felt better, if better was at all possible anymore, to tell it as baldly as he could, no sugar coating, no rationalization to spare himself from the awful truth of it. "He wanted you to find my body and see that he had ejaculated inside me. It was his message for you. His idea of betrayal."

"I smelled it on you," Lecter murmured. "I nearly burned the house down around his body because of it."

Will sucked in his breath, shocked, a little bit...pleased.

"He tried to taint you and erode our relationship," Lecter went on, his fingers still plying Will's hair. "Tobias was a fool to believe that. You were right to kill him."

"I didn't intend to."

"Didn't you?"

Will shut his eyes. "I did."

"Good. Because if you hadn't, I would have."

Will didn't know what to say. He was having trouble wrapping his mind around the image of polite, refined Hannibal Lecter doing violence to anyone. This was not to say it wasn't possible.

The chest beneath his cheek was covered with firm muscle. Lecter's bicep, resting against Will's arm, was thick and hard. Lecter kept himself in shape, which had always been evident because of his tailored clothing, but Will began to realize that Lecter wasn't slender, he was fit. He was strong. He was capable of fighting. Of protecting. 

Of avenging.

Unbidden, Will slipped his arms around the other man's waist. He froze once he'd done it, fearful he'd overstepped a huge boundary. Something rumbled deep in Lecter's chest. His other arm came around Will's shoulders and pulled him closer into a full embrace.

Will surrendered then. He wasn't afraid of Lecter and that was freedom. He shook and shivered as Lecter patted his head and assured him that Budge was better off dead and that he, Will, had made the world a better place. He listened, amazed, as Lecter told him that he had grown into his true potential, that everything would be different now, now that Will was like him. Whatever that meant.

Later, Lecter fed him dinner. Literally. Will blushed, self-conscious, as Lecter used his fingers to feed Will bits of the meat he'd braised. It was probably delicious but Will was distracted by the intensity of Lecter's expression as he watched Will chew and swallow each morsel. With each bite, Lecter's eyes grew darker and his lids fell lower over them. His lips, which Will had to admit could be described as sensuous, softened and parted. Lecter's was a look of sex, and Will wanted to squirm from the distressing cocktail of unease and intrigue that slid down to his groin when he realized he was the focus of it.

"What is it you fear?"

Lecter's whisper was hypnotic. His fingers, glistening with sauce, hovered just above Will's lips. When Will didn't answer him, Lecter dragged those fingertips carefully over Will's lips, painting them with the sauce. Will's cock, an organ he thought he might never use again, thickened between his legs. He parted his slick lips. Lecter slid one finger inside without hesitation.

Heat burst across Will's cheekbones. His lashes fluttered wildly as Lecter pumped his finger across his tongue, rubbing sauce into his taste buds, rubbing himself into Will. Will tried to rear back but Lecter held him firmly in place, forcing him to take the measured thrusts across his tongue. Will tried to stand. Lecter kept him down. 

"Relax," Lecter whispered.

Flushed and shaking, Will did what he'd done since killing Budge: he trusted Lecter. 

"Suck," Lecter told him, his dark eyes understanding Will's crisis but willing him to get over it. "The act of suckling has primal roots in our psyche. It is an act of supreme comfort."

It sounded like bullshit to Will, but he was so messed up...how much worse could he become? 

Lecter cradled Will's chin while he hesitantly began to suckle the other man's finger. 

"Good, Will." The praise was warm, soothing. Will allowed himself to feel it. Lecter was a doctor. He knew what he was doing. _Trust him_...

Lecter's other hand slid to Will's hip. Then it slid back.

Welts leaped to awareness beneath Lecter's questing fingertips. Will twitched and groaned in confused discomfort as Lecter plucked at the swollen lines of his flesh. Just when Will was about to knock Lecter aside, friend or no, Lecter's fingers slipped beneath the waistband of his sweats and into the crease of his ass.

The delicate touch on even more delicate skin caused Will to jerk forward. An arrow of arousal shot straight to his cock and he inadvertently sucked hard on Lecter's tongue, earning him a raspy gasp, the first such noise from the composed doctor.

"I can still smell him," Lecter murmured darkly. He used his hand to tilt Will's face up. "I want him gone from you."

Will released Lecter's finger. He was hot and sweating, confused and aroused, but there wasn't an ounce of judgment on Lecter's face. 

"W-what do you want?"

Lecter skimmed Will's cheek with his damp finger. "Permit me to take care of you."

 _What have I got to lose?_ Uncertain, terrified, exhausted, Will gave in.

Lecter took him to the older man's bedroom after a stop to retrieve the medicine and bandages. With the lights dimmed, Lecter expertly treated and bandaged the ligature marks on Will's wrists and ankles. His touch was light, nonsexual, easing Will's stress. Once that was done, a kneeling Lecter rested his hands atop Will's knees.

"There is one more area I wish to treat on you, Will."

"He didn't draw blood when he whipped me," Will said quickly.

"I'm referring to the area where he penetrated you."

"I don't want sex," Will whispered, wide-eyed. It felt crazy to say it. Lecter was a man. Will wasn't attracted to men. But something was happening here, a connection blazing to life. If it was sex or a need for comfort, Will couldn't distinguish one from the other at this moment.

"Not yet," Lecter acknowledged, the answer making Will's stomach flutter. Not yet. But eventually. Soon, if the hunger on Lecter's face was anything to go by. Will felt pinned, like a butterfly at the mercy of a collector who cherished him but could obliterate him. Somehow, at some time, danger had crept into this equation, but it only made Will's heart pound harder in his dick, only made him more anxious to close his eyes and let Lecter do with him what he will. After all, he was a killer. Anything that happened to him, he deserved.

Lecter guided him onto his stomach and eased a pillow beneath his hips. Will's face was hot as his sweat pants were slowly dragged down his hips and off his legs. Had Lecter placed him in this position intentionally? No, he couldn't have known that this was how Budge had had him. This was simply the most expeditious way to reach the area Lecter was interested in...

A murmur of dismay was followed by a low growl. Will could tell Lecter was staring at the marks on his body. He started to hunch his shoulders, but Lecter spoke up.

"You have nothing to be ashamed of. Tobias Budge is fortunate to be dead."

The darkness in Lecter's voice sent goosebumps racing across Will's skin. In the back of his head a voice asked, _would it be so difficult to imagine Lecter as a killer too?_ But Will shied from the voice. He couldn't deal with that now.

Palms flattened his buttocks and gently parted him. Will buried his face in his crossed arms as Lecter studied him. He had cleaned himself well back there of course, but maybe there was evidence, some sign that Budge had fucked him and Will had nearly come from it.

He felt the bed dip beneath Lecter's weight, and then there was _heat_ and _moisture_ and oh, hell, what was Lecter doing--

"Relax," Lecter breathed against the crease of Will's ass. "This is called rimming."

"I know what it's called," Will choked out. "Why are you _doing_ it?"

"To cleanse you." A tender lick. "To replace him." Lecter licked him delicately, right on the protected skin that no one ever touched. "Because I wish to."

Will groaned helplessly as Lecter bent his head to his task once more. The other man's tongue dragged down the pale line between his cheeks and then up again. A flick at the cleft at the top of his crease, and then down to where his hole twitched in nervous anticipation. There, to his horror and delight, Lecter hovered. 

Tiny laps of Lecter's tongue coaxed the ring to open. Will's legs trembled. He felt his knees sliding up on the bed, widening his stance, opening him to the other man. Lecter teased him as if he knew what Will wanted. He left Will's hole to lick down his perineum and lave the taut orbs of his scrotum. He spent time there too, driving Will crazy with his swirling tongue and sucking lips, before licking a trail back to his hole.

"One day, you will share everything with me," Lecter murmured, his breath puffing against Will's damp skin.

Will held his breath, wondering if Lecter was asking permission. Will didn't know if he could give it. He felt drunk, drugged, not himself. None of this was him and yet he was here, naked and spread out like a buffet for a man he hardly knew...

...yet whom he trusted implicitly, for a reason he couldn't explain. Maybe because he could sense that for all his education, intelligence and culture, there was something slightly off about Dr. Lecter. Just like Will himself.

He cried out into the bed when Lecter finally screwed his tongue into Will. It was glorious and tortuous and nothing Will would have ever asked for in his lifetime but he was grateful, oh, so grateful to be receiving it. He humped back, pushing himself against Lecter's mouth, groaned as Lecter licked him out, seeking evidence of Budge which Lecter wanted _out_. When Will began to writhe, overcome by the sensations, Lecter grabbed him firmly by the hips, thumbs pressing into welts and somehow ramping Will's arousal that much higher.

"Hannibal," he gasped as he thrust his pulsing cock against the bed's comforter. "Hannibal, please..."

He heard a belt jangle, clothes rustling. It was a repeat of Budge and Will's spine muscles started to seize--

Lecter lifted his mouth and seconds later something hot and soft and blunt pressed right to Will's hole, pushed in.

He opened his mouth to cry out just as his body opened to allow just the tip of Lecter's cock inside. Pulses of heat spurted into the small gaping mouth of his body. Then Lecter withdrew that precious inch, allowing Will's nether mouth to wrinkle closed. Lecter pushed his thumb into Will, pushing his come deeper into Will's channel just in case, so when Will's body closed it would do so with Lecter's seed still inside.

As soon as he understood what Lecter was doing, Will orgasmed with a sound similar to the one Budge had made as Will strangled the life from him. Ecstasy flooded his body, brought black spots to his vision. Heat and moisture, like a puddle of blood, damped the comforter beneath his hips. As he lay panting and trembling in the aftermath, Lecter kissed up his spine. He straddled Will on hands and knees, no part of his body touching Will except for his lips, which pressed a tender kiss to the top of Will's spine.

"Purged and remade, Will Graham." Lecter chuckled against his skin. "Now that you have shared your secrets with me, it is time that I shared mine with you."

**Author's Note:**

> Check out my site if you want to know more about me and my writing http://www.triciaowensbooks.com


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